J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

I am just back from a long weekend in Soll. The resort claims something like 280kms of piste - all of it interconnected mostly with very modern, efficient lifts. According, to skiline.cc I covered a little over 160kms in 4 days. Most of the skiing has limited vertical so not terribly long runs, though there are several valley runs to the various villages that will test even he fittest legs:oops:. Conditions on these can be a bit varied but, as usual, the lift company does a great job on maintaining the slopes :wink:. Overall, I would say that it is a great resort for intermediates but may not have enough to keep more advanced skiers busy for very long :roll:.

For apres ski, Soll is pretty good - you can have traditional Austrian apres with the usual Oompa-oompa music/europop or several bars in town that cater for UK tastes. Not quite as lively as party resorts like St Anton or Ischgl but still lively enough for most people :lol:.

I haven't skied Cortina but have stayed near Campitello on the main Sella Ronda circuit twice so my comments relate to this area. The Dolomiti Superski pass claims over 1,000km of pistes. It is truly vast and again cruising-hungary intermediates will love it. Some decent long blacks to keep more advanced happy. There is a great sense of touring on the Sella, whether you do the mandatory full circuit of just use it like the M25 to get around to the various areas. Apres ski is limited - the Italians don;t really do it :shock:.

Italy probably wins on the food stakes though it is hard to beat a good Tiroler Grostl as perfect ski lunch fare. Both offer much better value than most other ski resorts. The Dolomites is probably a little bit friendlier as well, though this is a marginal call.

I love both locations but would probably opt for the Dolomites if travel and cost factors were largely about the same (and apres not a huge priority) :lol:. You might want to factor in conditions - the Skiwelt will always present the pistes in really good condition. I am not as sure that the Dolomites manage the snow as effectively :roll:.

Dave Mac wrote:For my regular trip of the year, I need to choose between train from Munich to Woergl, or car hire at Munich flughaven.
So, I guess I have hired for most of the past 15 years or so.
Winterisation in Germany became mandatory several years back. This means that your tyres will meet the winter regs. Yes the chain demand may be brought into action on my local mountain road, but in over 45 years of driving there, it has never been acted upon. That may be different for others.

Please be aware there is a scam emerging from some operators. Mostly buried in small print is an item that if you are planning to travel outside of the country of hire, there wil be a charge, (€6~€10 per day) for traveling outside the country of hire. Last year, I point blank refused. This year, I read through the small print of each car hire company. It took four tries to avoid this clear scam. and accept the T&Cs of the company I chose.

It is certainly much more complicated than it used to be.

Just back from a long weekend in Soll, via Munich. Got a good deal on carhire with Enterprise through Arguscarhire which included winter tyres. Because there was snow forecast, I decided it was best to get chains as well. The guy initially wanted to charge €10 per day but immediately agreed to half this when I pointed out that I wanted to hire them for 4 days not buy them 8) . He did mention the "cross-border" charge and I overheard the lady dealing with a customer beside me describe this as an insurance cost - I don't believe this for a second. Thankfully, my guy waived the charge in my case for reasons that were not clear to me. Perhaps he sensed that I would not be pleased with such a charge :shock:. To complete a happy experience, he also gave me a free upgrade :mrgreen:.

Latest forecast showing heavy rain on mountain on Sunday. Please tell me it is not so?

You could also look at somewhere like Sauze d'Oulz which is less than 90 minutes from Turin. Lots of gentle skiing available. Innsbruck would give you access to northern end of Dolomites in less than 2 hours. Dolomites are perfect for intermediates, though the timid one might not fancy one or two pitches on the Sella Ronda.

With all due respect, I do think the reference to the helmets in OP title is inappropriate. It runs the risk of giving the impression that the helmets were somehow a factor in the deaths. The detail of the posting makes it clear that there is no reason for thinking that.

I would suggest that the title be amended to delete reference to the helmets. Perfectly reasonable to report in the body of the article that helmets were being worn.

Another thrilling race in Kitzbuel this weekend. However, it came with a heavy toll for several racers including tour leader Aksel Lund Svindal :cry: . Svindal along with 3 other racers suffered season-ending ACL injuries in the race and race practice. Hannes Reickert was also injured but thankfully his injuries are less serious and he is expected to be back competing within a few weeks.

Considering they only allowed the top 30 racers to start (due to high winds), this seems like an extremely high toll of serious injuries. Is it too much? Do they need to modify course to make it safer like they have done to some circuits on the F1 racing circuit? I know this would reduce some of the excitement that goes with the event but is this reasonable?

Lindsey keeps delivering. Now up to 75 World Cup wins and this weekend broke the record for most downhill wins beating the record held by Annemarie Moser-Pröll held since the 1970s.

I think it is now beyond argument that she is the greatest female skier of all time. It will be interesting to see if she can beat Ingemar Stenmark's record of an incredible 86 wins. It will be even more interesting to see the debate about who is the greatest skier of all time, male or female, if that happens :roll:.

The fact that she is dominating the circuit after a career-threatening injury makes her performance even more amazing. Red Bull made a great documentary on her recovery from that injury. I think you can view it here http://www.redbull.com/ie/en/snow/stories/1331702086424/watch-lindsey-vonn-s-the-climb-documentary-movie-free. Its well worth watching :wink: .

This is my first attempt at pulling a GoPro video together. It was made on my trip to St Anton last March. A lot of the skiing in the clip was in the Stuben area. I still have to get more used to both filming and editing to make more interesting vids :oops:

Anyway, I hope you will enjoy it a little bit:wink: